Italy - Fresh Elections Underway As Parties Fail To Form Government

After a third round of negotiations still failed to produce a working government, it is looking likely that Italy will face new elections after those of 4 March (won by the anti-European parties and the nationalists) resulted in a hung parliament.

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella, who holds a mostly ceremonial role, did caution the politicians though, as Italy needs reforms urgently which are being stalled for now. He called upon a neutral government to be assigned till the end of the year or face fresh elections in July. The biggest political parties will most likely favor new elections, hoping to further their gains.

Mr Mattarella stated: "Let the parties decide of their own free will if they should give full powers to a government or else new elections should be held immediately in the month of July or the autumn."

Back in March, it was the anti-European Five-Star-Movement and the nationalist Lega Nord who came out as the big winners, but in order to govern one of them would need to work together with the centre-left Democratic Party of the former government, something both of them failed to agree on. As neither of the three parties was willing to make any admissions of moving towards the others, a stalemate ensued.

The Five-Star-Movement made it clear that it favored fresh elections, with its chairman Mr Luigi Di Maio stating: "We have No faith in a "neutral" government, which is synonymous with a government of technocrats. We are going to vote in July."

Italy already had a ‘technocratic’ government during a previous election crisis, from 2011 till 2013, led by former EC Commissioner Mario Monti who introduced a series of harsh reform measures, which kept Italy in the Eurozone during the Euro-crisis. It is clear that Italians will prefer new elections to another neutral government.